The municipal role

The municipalities play a central role in the collected chain of efforts for children and young people with mental health problems. Teachers and other educational professionals are often the ones families turn to for advice and guidance when a child or adolescent is struggling with mental health problems.  The municipalities have Pedagogical Psychological Counselling (PPR), where teachers and families can seek counseling regarding a child or adolescent’s mental distress. Many families are also supported through social services when a child or adolescent experiences mental health problems. Thereby, it is professionals from municipalities who provide the efforts where the child and adolescent are living their life. The municipalities are also important actors before, during, and after treatment in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. 

The municipalities Aalborg, Hjørring, Mariagerfjord, and Thisted are collaborative partners in Best for Us, but the remaining municipalities of the North Denmark Region will also be involved in the co-creation processes of the project.

Recently the Danish Government has decided that the 98 municipalities of Denmark are to deliver an accessible treatment offer for children and young people with mental health problems. 

This creates a unique opportunity for Best for Us, to create new knowledge concerning how such a treatment offer can be incorporated in a cohesive stepped-care model, and what impact the treatment offer will have on children and young people with mental health problems.

In work package 5 there will be a research focus on how the accessible treatment offer works in the municipalities, as well as how it is experienced by children and adolescents, parents, and professionals. Furthermore, the work package will investigate how the accessible treatment offer is incorporated along with the remaining offers the municipality provides for children and young people with mental health problems. There will also be a focus on how the cross-sectional collaboration between municipalities and regions works. Based on the assumption that civil society can contribute to ensure the inclusion of children and young people with mental health problems in meaningful communities, Best for Us seeks to develop a model for a more systematical collaboration between civil society actors and municipal actors. 

Therefore, work package 5 will focus on how the mental well-being of children and young people can be improved by the involvement and strengthening of leisure and community activities. 

The Best for Us-model for involving the civil society is to be co-created along with children, young people, parents, partner municipalities, and the civil society. 

Responsible

The overall responsible for work package 5 is Thomas Szulevicz, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Section Leader, Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University.